Abrotanum

Abrotanum

The name Abrotanum brings to one’s mind the subject of transfer of a disease from one organ to another. In English, this process is known as metastasis. It means that the disease shifts from one part of the body to another. For instance, in the case of mumps, the parotid glands (situated below the ear) swell, and when the disease becomes suppressed at this place, it transfers itself to the reproductive organs. There are many reasons for it being suppressed, for example it could be due to the use of antibiotics, or through local application of poultices. Sometimes it could be due to sudden exposure to cold in high fever. Among all medicines used in the migrating type of ailments, Abrotanum is one of the most salient ones.
Sometimes, by the suppression of diarrhoea, the patient experiences sudden severe pain in the joints and at other times, the heart may be affected. Similarly, sudden cessation of menstruation may result in mental or other ailments.
We shall continue talking about the migration of a disease from one place to another in the context of different remedies so that one may be able to understand well, the indication and usage of remedies for shifting the illness back to where it started.
If a patient suffers from gout or rheumatism, yet at the same time experiences restlessness as if the blood through the heart seems to be scraping the heart, and also he has Epistaxis or blood in the urine, then he is very likely to get cured by the use of Abrotanum.
The basic nature of the Abrotanum patient is that loose frequent stools (diarrhoea) give him relief by excreting the harmful products that would have otherwise involved the joints. In such a patient, Abrotanum will also gradually cure diarrhoea as well as joint pains. If the joint pains are suppressed by using some remedies, or by local heat application and the patient contracts pleurisy instead of diarrhoea, then it becomes imperative for the Homeopath to retrace the course of sickness back to its origin. If the joint pains had preceded the development of pleurisy (inflammation of the outer lining of the lung which causes pain on deep breathing and much more so on coughing), then surely the remedy in this case would be Abrotanum. Abrotanum
will cure the pleurisy but may initially cause the recurrence of joint pains, which will eventually be cured by continued use of Abrotanum, Insha Allah.
Abrotanum is also very useful in the generalised wasting disease of the children (marasmus) when its basic features are also present. For the treatment of marasmus in children, Aethusa, Natrum Mur and Calcaria Carb are also well known remedies. In Calcaria Carb, the wasting affects the legs, while in Abrotanum it starts at the legs but extends to the upper body. This symptom alone is sufficient to suggest that Abrotanum is the remedy to be given in potency 30, three times a day. This could bring complete cure, by the Grace of God.
If the joint pains get better but the heart becomes affected, one should not ignore Abrotanum in addition to the other remedies for the heart.
Sometimes on the sudden cessation of diarrhoea, joint pains and bleeding piles develop, Abrotanum would still be the right choice. Such a patient feels excessive cold. His symptoms aggravate in cold and humid weather. He often complains of backache worsening at night. The backache of Abrotanum always worsens at night irrespective of any specific time, but the backache of Kali Carb is specific for late night or very early morning hours around 3-4 am. In such a patient, if we find the core symptom of ‘amelioration by onset of diarrhoea’, then the back pain will also be cured by Abrotanum. The general improvement of symptoms with the onset of diarrhoea is also present in Natrum Sulph and Zinc, but to make proper diagnosis, their salient features should also be present in a patient.
Abrotanum pains are sometimes of cutting or piercing nature, which can involve the ovaries, in addition to the joints. A patient having pains at the ovaries and the joints and backache, aggravated at night, the symptoms subsiding with the onset of diarrhoea, will also immensely benefit from Abrotanum as the cure for her infertility.